Autism was not even defined as a separate diagnosis distinct from schizophrenia until 1980 in the DSM 3!
The diagnosis of Autism has changed many times over the years since then. There were different criteria for Autism in multiple variations of DSM 4 and 5 later on.
The DSM is the foundational manual psychiatrists/psychologists use to diagnose people.
I am curious though as a lay person who is interested in this topic because of the experience of having a normal child until a major adverse reaction to a childhood vaccine (documented and requiring medical assistance) who subsequently received a diagnosis of autism. So, if as you say, the science is there to prove that vaccines do not cause autism, is it possible that a vaccine might exacerbate that which is already existing but not yet detected? I am just trying to look at all possibilities rather blanketly disregarding the 'science' because it doesn't tie with my experience.
Hi Debra. I have a PhD in Molecular Biology, have studied viruses, and currently work in clinical trials. Let me offer you a more obvious example of the flawed logic behind any cause/effect relationship between vaccines and autism. About 8,000 people die per day in the US. Let’s say on Day 1, every single American gets vaccine “X.” Then on Day 2, 8,000 people die. Some people will be convinced that vaccines caused death, when in fact the rate of deaths is normal. Now let’s say on Day 2, 16,000 people died. Now there is something interesting to investigate, but still no direct cause/effect relationship proven until investigated further. Maybe on Day 2, there was also an earthquake that took 8,000 lives. Do you see the point? Timing does not imply any cause/effect relationship and any connection between vaccines and autism has been disproven over and over and over. The idea only persists because of deliberate false information.
Without knowing more details, it seems very possible that you already had autism before being vaccinated, but that it wasn’t diagnosed. I am a scientist so I accept the evidence that vaccines don’t cause autism.
Thank you for this wonderful article!
If someone says the following: “autism rates are skyrocketing due to vaccines”, I then kindly point out the following article to them:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-021-04904-1
Autism was not even defined as a separate diagnosis distinct from schizophrenia until 1980 in the DSM 3!
The diagnosis of Autism has changed many times over the years since then. There were different criteria for Autism in multiple variations of DSM 4 and 5 later on.
The DSM is the foundational manual psychiatrists/psychologists use to diagnose people.
This changes how often Autism is diagnosed!
So the fact that mercury in children’s vaccines has quadrupled since the 1980’s has nothing to do with the rise of autism? BS!
I am curious though as a lay person who is interested in this topic because of the experience of having a normal child until a major adverse reaction to a childhood vaccine (documented and requiring medical assistance) who subsequently received a diagnosis of autism. So, if as you say, the science is there to prove that vaccines do not cause autism, is it possible that a vaccine might exacerbate that which is already existing but not yet detected? I am just trying to look at all possibilities rather blanketly disregarding the 'science' because it doesn't tie with my experience.
Hi Debra. I have a PhD in Molecular Biology, have studied viruses, and currently work in clinical trials. Let me offer you a more obvious example of the flawed logic behind any cause/effect relationship between vaccines and autism. About 8,000 people die per day in the US. Let’s say on Day 1, every single American gets vaccine “X.” Then on Day 2, 8,000 people die. Some people will be convinced that vaccines caused death, when in fact the rate of deaths is normal. Now let’s say on Day 2, 16,000 people died. Now there is something interesting to investigate, but still no direct cause/effect relationship proven until investigated further. Maybe on Day 2, there was also an earthquake that took 8,000 lives. Do you see the point? Timing does not imply any cause/effect relationship and any connection between vaccines and autism has been disproven over and over and over. The idea only persists because of deliberate false information.
Without knowing more details, it seems very possible that you already had autism before being vaccinated, but that it wasn’t diagnosed. I am a scientist so I accept the evidence that vaccines don’t cause autism.